Darwin Heat......wear sunscreen

We landed in Darwin Saturday night right in the middle of a violent thunderstorm.  I discovered later that Darwin records more lighting strikes in a given period than all other locations in Australia.....just another bit of useless trivia that is bound to pay off somewhere down the line. :)

So...like the headline, it's hot.  We were informed by my personal assistant, Google, that it would be 9 degrees warmer on Sunday than it was on Saturday.  Wow!  What an oppressive heat!  We live in South Florida and should be able to handle this but this was absolutely stifling.......

Despite that, we had a great time during our short visit.  As a Pre-requisite to some photos, the obligatory history lesson.

Background

The Aborigines had been in the region for thousands of years and the Dutch had been through the area in the 1600's.  The British first landed in 1839 aboard the HMS Beagle (what a name for a ship..) and named the port after a former crewmate, Charles Darwin (one and the same...).

Mining and tourism are the main industries here continuing to this day.  Darwin was bombed by the Japanese fleet that also bombed Pearl Harbor in 1942 killing 243 residents.  Since then, there has been a military presence here.  US troops were deployed again to Darwin in 2011 and will grow to 2500 marines by 2017.

As noted before, violent weather is common enough in Darwin.  The most notable and tragic example was Cyclone Tracy which struck on Christmas Day, 1974 killing 71 people and leveling 70% of the city.

Sights

During our visit, we took a trip to Crocodylus Park and Zoo to see some genuine Aussie saltwater Crocs.   Man at these things huge.  Pat and I had seen Crocs in Thailand several times but none were anywhere near the size of these monsters. I understand that some we saw were still modest compared to what is seen in the wild.  The largest one that  the park had was over 530KG (1100 lbs) and roughly 15 feet long.  It is not uncommon for the largest in the wild to weigh close to a ton....almost as much as my first car.

It was surprising to me how little Crocs need to eat to maintain their size and strength.  The park ranger was feeding the Crocs small pieces of chicken and explained that a full size Croc only needs about 1 full chicken per week to survive.  Too much food stresses the liver.  During 200 million years of evolution, Crocs have developed a very efficient metabolism.

Crocs can move very quickly over short distances....up to 25M per second.  As our guide says, walking near any open body of water, it's a good idea to stay 15 - 20 meters away from the water line.  If one of these snags you, it's all over.

This is a really nice location and a great park that included other types of zoo animals besides Crocs.  They had a particularly nice enclosure for Meercats and the Lions were terrific.

What a monster and waiting for feeding time.

A full family of Meercats.  They make an interesting "chittering" sound

This Ostrich was bout 8 feet tall.  This would not fit on my barbeque!

Note the size difference between male and female.  These breeding pairs must often be separated as the male may eat the female.  Note the size of the Male....this is about 50% of the weight the largest grow in the wild.

Later in the day, we went to the Northern Territory museum showcasing Aboriginal Art.  Great displays and exhibits, especially those on the painting style utilizing many small, multicolored dots to create a picture.  Very creative.

After a brief (and hot...did I say this?) walk through downtown, we made our way back to the ship and the promise of air conditioning.....

Off to sea for the next few days and our next stop in Cairns.  That's all for now!